


Unmarked

by MiriRainbowitz



Category: Leverage
Genre: Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 06:44:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4656681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiriRainbowitz/pseuds/MiriRainbowitz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot, Parker, and Hardison don't have soulmarks, and that's fine. If the universe isn't going to give them soulmates, they'll just steal them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unmarked

When he was a kid- to be more accurate, when his hands were still clean of blood and pain and anger- Eliot thought of his unmarked chest as a curse. Unlike everyone else he knew, the skin over his heart was bare- he didn’t have a soulmate. It was one of the reasons he joined the Army- Aimee wanted to commit to him, despite the little horseshoe right next to her breast.

Then he became _Eliot Spencer_ , the legendary hitter, and the blank space over his heart was still a curse, but one that made sense now. God- or whoever was in charge of putting soulmarks on people- must have seen what he would become and deemed him utterly unfit to have a romantic soulmate. Besides, with the line of work he was in, it was far better to not have to worry about someone else, or someone innocent getting hurt because of what he was.

He’d wondered, when he stopped killing, if he’d get a soulmark- it wasn’t unheard of for people to get new soulmarks later in life- but his chest remained stubbornly unmarked. _And that was fine_ , he’d convinced himself. He may have been doing better now, but he couldn’t erase the past- couldn’t really separate himself from the monster he used to be.

And then, before he even really realized what he was doing, he’d gotten roped into Nate Ford’s crusade, gotten _attached_ to these four other people and, well. He knew he’d probably die protecting them- hitters, especially ones like him, didn’t tend to live long- and there was another benefit of his lack of a soulmate- no one would have to mourn his passing.

(There was a part of him- one that sounded suspiciously like Nate and Sophie and Parker and Hardison- that said that he _would_ be mourned. That his team- his _family_ \- would miss him if he died. He did his best to ignore that part of himself, but sometimes- when he was about to give up, when a fight was too much- it would grow louder, and he’d get back up and find a way to kick people’s asses.)

He watched Nate and Sophie get closer together, and that was fine- they were probably soulmates. He watched Parker and Hardison circle around each other, and yeah, maybe his heart twinged a little when he looked at them, but they were probably also soulmates too. Really, it was for the best- he’d make sure he’d protect them with his last breath, because they deserved to find each other and be happy with each other.

And then Japan happened.

It had been kind of accidental, really- he’d went to get Hardison and walked into his hotel room without thinking, except Hardison wasn’t wearing a shirt, showing off his impressive, _unmarked_ , chest, and Eliot felt like his world had just shattered into pieces. How could _Hardison_ , of all people, not have a soulmate? He was kind, and caring, and brilliant, and so human- nothing like the monster Eliot was. 

It was okay that Eliot was destined to be alone- he deserved it. Hardison didn’t.

Hardison wasn’t a genius for nothing- he could probably tell what was going through Eliot’s mind. “Eliot- we’ll talk about this, but not before we get back to Portland,” he said. “Parker would kill me if we talked about this without her.” All Eliot could do was nod, his thoughts too messed up and tangled to process.


End file.
